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Allen Khumalo, Sports Reporter
SIX Matabeleland swimming records tumbled at the 2017 Matabeleland Junior Championships Gala held at Hillside Teachers’ College on Saturday morning.
Ten-year-old Onye Onovo from Barracudas Swimming Club was the toast of the day, breaking four records in the 25M butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.
Onovo broke her 20.91 seconds record that she had set in the 25M breaststroke in the same event last year after to set a new record of 20.56 secons.
She also broke her 16.60s record in the butterfly event in a new time of 16.02s. Onovo overhauled Chante Querl’s 25M (19.18s) record to set a new one of 18.83s. she then shaved off close to two seconds from Querl’s 50M freestyle record of 36.21s to set a new record of 34.75s.
Crusaders club’s Timea Schultz (12) broke Riana Rollo’s 38.22s record in the 50M backstroke in a a time of 37.58s, while Jayden de Swardt (11) from Barracudas club broke Ty Cooks’ 100M individual meddley (IM) record of one minute 24.30s record to set new one of one minute 24.22s.
Matabeleland Swimming Board chairperson Nokuthula Cyprianos said she is happy with their achievements.
“The event was a success judging by the fact that a lot of records were broken on the day. This is a big step for the province and it shows the level of improvement and how stiff the competition is getting. However, we still need to rectify those records to see how genuine the results are. We will also be assessing the time keepers for the day to check whether they are qualified so that the records can stand,” Cyprianos said.
After dominating the competition in both the men’s and women’s categories, Barracudas Swimming Club went on to be crowned champions of the 2017 Matabeleland Junior Championships after finishing top of the table with a combined score of 146 points. School of Mining came second with a combined score of 115 points.
In third place was Penguins Swimmers with 56.5 points, while Crusaders and Zambesi Tigers followed with 46 and 39 points respectively.
Dolphins came sixth after amassing 10 points, while Petra Academy came last with 5.5 points.
Combined Scores
1. Barracudas Swimming Club 146
2. School of Swimming 115
3. Affiliated Penguins 56.5
4. Affiliated Crusaders 46
5. Zambesi Tigers 39
6. Affiliated B G Dolphins 10
7. Petra Swimming Academy 5.5
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Bongani Ndlovu